The story was reported on local TV with the man's name and picture. The boys were not identified. Names of minors, either victims or suspects, are rarely reported in such cases. Alleged adult victims of sexual abuse are also not identified unless they give permission.

Good for all of them, too. Why should these girls hide as if getting raped were their crime? Although they declined to tell [Katie Couric] (who asked gently) how they were treated physically by [Roy Ratliff], they have no cause for shame. Why shouldn't they be as open about their sexual assaults--if that would be their choice--as about the rest of their nightmarish ordeal? Why not feel comfortable telling all, as victims of other crimes usually do?

Take Patrick Gillan, the San Marino High School girls' basketball coach whose arrest on suspicion of molesting one of his players was announced by grandstanding cops at a City Hall press conference in December and reported in this paper and on local TV. The smear had already thickened when Gillan's case ended less than two months later, and the district attorney's office cited insufficient evidence in deciding not to file charges. Gillan later sued San Marino and its Police Department.